Business as Usual
by Myru
Summary: Just when Rio fell into her daily routine of being a farmer, she gets swept up in an impossible proposition. Being treated like a princess isn't all bad. Unfortunately for Rio, she was never cut out to be one. Rating subject to change! Rio x Amir


_**Just when Rio fell into her daily routine of being a farmer, she gets swept up in an impossible proposition. Being treated like a princess isn't all bad. Unfortunately for Rio, she was never cut out to be one. Rio x Amir **_

_**Amir has always been one of my favorite characters, because his character design is just gorgeous and he's very sweet (and not spoiled like you'd expect a prince to be, even though he does have his moments when he is a little brash) and I believe he should have more stories on here. Hopefully this will be a start of a story I finish, and with nice character development between the Rio and Amir and both of their personalities.**_

**_Thanks for reading.  
_**

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"The shower ran hot, the fresh scent of lavender rose in the air and steam spiraled around the small confines of the bathroom. A refreshed sigh left the farmer's lips as the hot water burned and ran against her body, washing away the smell of fertilizer and the sweat that had accumulated from her daily work.

Rio had just completed setting up her farm for the winter; planting the few variety of crops that grew during the cold season, and collecting all the grass that had managed to survive the first day of snowy weather. It always surprised the farmer how quickly the land changed with the passing of each new season, and how quickly she had learned to adapt from season to season.

Rio stepped out the shower and swiftly dried herself off before throwing on the warmest jacket she could find and a pair of jeans. There was no reason to catch a cold when it could be avoided. Thus, she began her trip into town.

She walked into town. The first stop she made was to the general store in order to buy more supplies to run her farm. After quickly purchasing some flower seeds and fertilizer, she waved goodbye to the store owner, Hana, and moved on to the animal dealership. Rio made her way up the stone walkway towards the plaza when she was interrupted by someone calling out to her.

"Hey, Rio!"

Rio stopped and turned towards the direction of the voice. Hurling at her was a ball of snow that slammed dead center in her face, blindsiding her. The blonde stumbled back on her heels and nearly fell rear first into the snow. She sputtered, wiping the slushy precipitation from her face.

"What the heck was that?" she groaned before her ears were greeted with the laughter of children, said children being Toni and Hina.

The little girl cheered and turned towards Toni; the two of them high-fiving each other for their sniping skills. "We got her, we got her!"

"You little..." Rio grunted, not really sure of what exact insult she wanted to use today. "Brats!"

Toni and Hina gulped, backing away from the farmer as she marched closer, obviously not pleased at being attacked. The farmer brows were furrowed, she had her arms crossed over her chest, and she huffed in aggravation.

"We're not a-afraid of you!" Toni spoke up, stepping in front of Hina like a shield.

Rio chuckled darkly. A smirk soon formed on her face as she bore down at the small children. "You want to challenge the powerful Rio! Huh?" she said while scooping up as much snow that could fit in her palms.

Soon the entire plaza turned into a war field. Rio against Hina and Toni while the bystanders were considered civilians, dodging the exchange of fire. A snowball swooshed past Rio, barely missing her as she dodged behind Neil's stall for safety.

"Hey, you kids, go play your game somewhere else!" Neil scolded Toni, since one of his cows was almost shot in the crossfires. The animal 'mooed' in displeasure and quickly wobbled to another corner of the pen to continue his nap. "You're going to hit my animals."

"Sorry," both of them yelp, Neil being one of the few adults able to intimidate them enough into listening to him. It was only because he was always yelling most of the time, whether or not he meant to.

Neil was a nice guy deep down, but his agitation and maybe a mixture of his shyness always placed him at odds with others, mainly those who didn't witness his softer side from time to time. This always managed to put him at odds with Rio's more relaxed attitude and sometimes brought them together, which led to them having a awkward relationship were people couldn't decided if they were actually friends or enemies. It was natural Rio would be the one to stick up for the kids against this _tyrant_.

Rio rolled her eyes at the animal dealer. "No one is going to hit your precious animals, Neil. M'kay?"

"You! Aren't you a little old to be playing these type of games? What if you would've hit somebody?" he scoffed.

She glared at him. Rio gazed Hina and Toni, who seemed defeated at this point; their eyes focused on the ground. Rio just grunted and stood up, walking over to them. Rio turned to look at Neil who seemed to have lost interest in the conversation completely.

"Hina, Toni," she started softly, closing her eyes. "Get him!" she ordered, pointing at Neil menacingly. The two shared a laugh and Neil found himself dodging a barrage of snowballs.

"I said cut it out!" Neil said spiraling his own projectile at Rio, nailing her dead in the chest.

"Ah! I've been shot!" Rio called out, grasping her heart with fake anguish. Cautiously, she dropped to her knees and reached towards the sky dramatically. "I'm coming, Martha!" Rio called out before finally dropping backwards to the ground.

"Rio!" Rod called out from his stall, rushing up to the _dead _girl. He delicately wrapped his arm under her neck and studied her face, still and lifeless. "Neil, that's not cool!"

"What?" he yelled defensively, "She started it!"

"You do realize this means war?" Rio suddenly spoke up and looked at Neil through one eye, who scoffed and ignored her once again...

"General Rod!" Rio called from behind his work bench, which they had successively moved to act as a fort and to keep the animals out of danger. "We need more ammunition. Damn. I never thought the enemy would be so skilled," she said and glared at Neil who was currently pelting them continuously with snow. Neither of them could find a break to emerge from their shield.

"Coming up," Rod stated, unsure how he got dragged into all this in the first place.

Hina and Toni just looked on, booted from their own game by these so-called adults. Deciding for something more fun to do, they long ran off to find another game and to get something warm to drink.

"Neil, after this, no hard feelings! And, I still need to buy twenty bags of fodder and bird feed, respectively!" she said before throwing a ball with all her might in his direction. Neil successfully ducked, leaving the ball swooshing past him and hitting someone square in the back of the head.

The passerby immediately fell to the ground; his white and golden clothing blending in with the snow. Rio immediately ran from her hiding post followed by Rod. Neil quickly came up behind them. "I told you this with happen," he groaned.

"_Oh, shit!" _Rio thought as she caught a glimpse of white hair and dark skin.

She automatically knew it was the new residents that had moved in little over a month ago, only two man she knew had that combination of hair and skin color. Rio didn't know them very well besides meeting them the first time in her farm house. She knew nothing other than that he came from a foreign country and being said prince of whatever country he came from. She didn't know him very well or exactly what he was doing on his trips here, yet she knew that he must have had some type of influence. "I'm in so much trouble!"

"He's not breathing! You didn't put rocks or anything in that?" Rio stammered, her words becoming more stringed together and her voice apprehensive.

"Well... It did feel kind of hard now that you mention it..." Rod

"This is bad. This is bad. I'm going to get arrested! If I'm going down, I'm sure as hell bringing you two down with me!" Rio continued, pointing specifically at Rod. "You for putting rocks in snowballs and Neil for dodging!" she said, turning towards the other blonde.

"Calm down. He's waking up." Neil sighed.

"Sanjay told me to be more aware around the plaza," the prince groaned, rubbing the back of his sore head. He blinked. His ice-y blue eyes scanning hazily between each three of the blondes, who stared at him aghast while the third just look more annoyed.

"Man! I'm really sorry about that! I didn't mean to hurt anyone," Rod explained before reaching out and helping tug Amir back onto his feet while Rio took the incentive to search the him for any injury, prodding and poking him curiously.

"Amir, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"It's okay. My little sister used to throw things at me all the time when we were younger," he sighed, seemingly recalling fonder memories of his childhood.

Rio still stood unconvinced. "I am so sorry! If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, don't hesitate to ask!"

"That won't be necessary. I-" Amir stopped, causing Rio to blink. He scanned the warmly dressed farmer up in down. Rio's skin was blue and dry from being out in the cold and her hair had become disheveled amongst the rough-housing. He was apprehensive to use her for his plans, seeing that from what he did notice about her was far from ideal. Rio tended to play around heavily and she hung out with more of the guys in town rather than girls. She was frequently smelling of animals and did little to hide her tiredness when she didn't feel like doing her hair or putting effort into the way she dressed when she went into town. Rio was far from ideal, but he supposed that this was the best he could do. She did offer to help him with anything. "Actually, I do have a problem I could use your help with."

"Sure. Sure! What is it?" Rio nodded excitedly.

"I would like to ask you in private. Would you accompany me to my house?"

"Oh, okay! See you guys later." Rio waved before following Amir to the other side of the town where his house was built that year.

Neil shook his head at their departure. "At least things can finally go back to normal around here."

Rod blinked before laughing at his friend. "You looked like you were enjoying yourself."

"I WASN'T!" Neil blushed.

Rio kicked her legs freely under the shining white table while keeping her hands folded in her lap. She never seemed to get used to be around this house, despite being the person who built it. The structure and the artwork were all overwhelming considering how humble all the other houses were in the country. The patterns of blue and white swirling around each other were much more complicated than her simple red and black animal print wall paper that she was used to. Not to mention, how she seemed so simple and unrefined compared to the residents.

"Thank you," she mumbled as a cup of tea was placed in front of her.

"You're very welcome, Miss Rio."

She nodded uncomfortably as she stared across the table at the white-haired man, who had escorted her here in the first place. Rio's unsureness and her uneasiness at being in such a pristine house was more than enough to deter her from talking along with the way Amir's sharp blue eyes bore directly into her or maybe it was the way she couldn't tell exactly what the prince was thinking the way he looked at her as if studying her, breaking every part of who she was down and separating them into categories, before finally sighing when the door closed shut.

_This was more difficult than she initially plan, she thought. _

"I have a proposal," he finally spoke up.

Rio gulped and nervously lifted her teacup towards her lips and drinking. She put the porcelain glass back down, biting her bottom lip softly. "What type of proposal exactly?" she asked, hoping she would like the answer.

"I shall start from the beginning. As a prince it's my obligation to see what is best for my country, that's one of the main reasons that I travel abroad after I finished my studies," he explained calmly. Soon he fell silent, running his hand through his hair. "Being such, my father is trying to prepare an arrange marriage for me. He always tries this about every few years."

Rio nodded to show she was paying attention. Amir closed his eyes and sighed. "The thing is- I don't want to get married to just any random person, so I would always misinform him that I was already in a relationship each time he suggested a marriage."

_This whole royalty business must be tough. _

"I'm sorry to hear that," she answered.

Amir nodded. "I do want a girlfriend. It's just that I haven't met anyone that I would truly want to be with; however, this time my father is sending an adviser to make sure what I say is true. That's where I need your help."

"So, you want me to pose as your girlfriend?" Rio deduced.

"Your answer?"

Rio jumped up from her place at the table, blushing furiously. Slamming her hands on the table, she shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I can't just go along with such a plan. Plus, I can't exactly lie to the king of another country! What if we get caught! I mean I barely know you and I'm not the type to go around wearing frilly dresses, and the townspeople might get the wrong idea- about us."

" I promise to take the full blame if such an event was to transpire. The worse thing that would happen is that I end up getting married to whoever she is anyway and going back to my country. You wouldn't be in any hassle whatsoever. I promise to take the full blame if anything were to happen."

Rio groaned and thought over the situation carefully. That was true. The worse that could happen would be that Amir would end up in the same situation he is in now. "Also," Rio looked back at him, "you did promise me you'd do anything to make up for **assaulting** me. I even think I may have started to bleed a little." he smirked.

"So, it's blackmail, is it?" Rio glared at him.

Amir chuckled. "Think of it more as extortion. I'd also be willing to pay you whatever you see fit as well."

Rio clenched her fist to her sides. He did have a point. She promised to make it up for hitting him and, as long they didn't get caught, both of them would be able to benefit each other. Rio would get paid and Amir wouldn't have to get married. Amir frowned. "I regret dragging you into my situation. I wouldn't be asking you this if it wasn't that I was absolutely desperate."

She couldn't exactly leave the guy to fend for himself. Rio knew if the situation was reversed that she would do anything to avoid having to marry a man whose name she didn't even know. Rio nodded and slowly sat back down into her seat. "Okay. What will I have to do?"

"You won't have to do anything you don't already do. I just need you to agree with everything I say and to meet with the adviser."

"When does he come?" Rio asked.

"Tomorrow."


End file.
